Apple: Designed for Samsung

How much does it cost to carry out a campaign that puts your company on the headlines of every major media house, inform consumers about your brand’s low pricing and highlights its product quality? The answer is $1.05 billion, and that is what Samsung will have to spend, after the 9-member jury ruled in favour of Apple.

Apple’s market share in India is 1.2%. The South Korean giant Samsung, the market leader, has a 51% piece of the pie and wants to make it 60% by the end of the year. The price-sensitive nature of the Indian market, coupled with the way business needs to be done in India— tie up with national, regional and local distributors to get the products to consumers— has led to Apple’s dismal performance.

The picture is completely different in other parts of the globe though. In the United States, Apple’s Q2 market share for 2012 was 31% and Samsung was close behind at 24%. With the verdict going Apple’s way, people are now well aware that Samsung devices are as good as that of their favourite brand, but marked with much lower price tags. So, Apple’s gain is ultimately Samsung’s gain.

But everything is not going in Samsung’s favour either, with possible injunctions looming over its devices. It’s not just Samsung which is at the receiving end of all negativity, Apple is being bad-mouthed equally. The response from Samsung about the verdict says it all: “Today’s verdict should not be viewed as a win for Apple, but as a loss for the American consumer. It will lead to fewer choices, less innovation, and potentially higher prices.”

It’s not just Samsung or its fans who are taking the fight to Apple; the fans of the California based company are also joining in. A company called Media Measurement carried out a research after the epic verdict, and found that Apple fans are berating the company for its use of the law to protect itself against innovations, that were perhaps, not as innovative as they seemed. Media Measurement also found that very few Apple fans defended the company on Facebook.

On Twitter, Apple was battered from all sides. Business magnate Mark Cuban tweeted, “Note to Apple. I have a TV with rounded edges and one that is rectangular, and I’ve [sic] seen round and square TVs in the past. Your move.” He also retweeted a tweet of a follower, which reflects the sentiments that the people now harbour about the tech giant – “Apple has turned into the exact product they were against in 1984 Super Bowl ad.”

While Apple and Samsung are fighting to decide who is more innovative, Microsoft and Nokia are slowly moving towards regaining their lost glory. Microsoft’s Windows Phone OS looks nothing like that of iOS or Android OS and the design of Nokia’s Lumia series is very different from the phones coming from Apple or Samsung’s stable. Windows Phone 8 is coming soon, so are the Windows 8-powered Surface tablets, and there is a lot of excitement regarding these products as well.

I won’t be surprised to see Nokia and Microsoft at the top if Apple and Samsung don’t get out of the court room and into the design studio. Pronto.